Abbas, son of Denise Armstong and Akil Khalid, is an Oakland born melanated organizer with roots in Opelousas, LA, Mississippi, and Alabama. He is a loving father to his beautiful son A’mazi, a supportive partner and a dedicated collective member to MG. He began organizing at the age of 15 with Youth Together in the wake of the murder of Oscar Grant. During his sophomore year at SFSU, he took on the lead organizer role at his former school, Castlemont High in East Oakland, mobilizing young people to make shifts in the Oakland Unified School District. In 2015, he began working at the Ryse Center in Richmond as a Youth Success Counselor to support at risk youth transitioning out of Contra Costa Juvenile Halls. Abbas has also been a lead on projects through Movement for Black Lives, The Black Land and Liberation Initiative, Alliance for Educational Justice, and The Brotherhood of Elders Network. Outside of movement work, he is a loving brother, family member, artist, photographer, and event planner.

Angela is a neurodiverse mama, bestie, healing arts practitioner, writer, researcher, and facilitator. She is an Indigenous Xicana with lineage rooted in N’de and Dine lands of New Mexico and Arizona, and Jalisco, Mexico and she comes to Oakland/Huichin, Ohlone Lands by way of Tongva Lands.

Angela’s change work is grounded in sexual and reproductive justice as ecological justice. She is a traditional life transition worker supporting families with a trauma/grief/healing-informed practice. Angela accompanies survivors of childhood sexual abuse and assault and systems-impacted people to heal our inner children, reclaim our power and curiosity, and reconnect to land. She also organizes families and communities around the intersection of birth and intergenerational healing and the ecological implications embedded in Indigenized birth work.

Angela is an alum of Indigenous Permaculture’s Green Community Leader program, an ethnic studies practitioner with an M.A. in Ethnic Studies, and a community health researcher with a Masters in Public Health. She is also an alum of East Bay Meditation Center’s Practice in Transformative Action. Since 2014, Angela has organized with the Healing Clinic Collective as a practitioner and core member and has served in an advisory role with the Freedom Community Clinic. Angela is honored to continue her life work by deepening into cultural strategy for ecological justice as an MG collective member.

Aspen is a queer mom and white anti-racist who believes whole heartedly in the power of transformative organizing. She brings over two decades of experience building and strengthening grassroots social justice organizations, with a focus on administration, fundraising and financial management. She grew up in Seattle and has built a vibrant life in the Bay Area over the last seventeen years, but often longs for the Pacific Northwest forests. When she’s not immersed in movement work, she loves hiking, collage and painting and art projects with her two kids.

Aspen led a community-directed research program with EDUCA in Oaxaca, Mexico before moving to San Francisco and joining People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) in 2005 as the Fundraising and Finance Director. A decade later, POWER merged with Causa Justa Just Cause and Aspen became the Finance and Administration Director for CJJC, and then served as co-Deputy Director from 2019-2021. She also has served as board treasurer of The Data Center and recently supported fundraising efforts for Seed the Vote. She’s thrilled to join Movement Generation and have the opportunity to learn from and contribute to MG’s inspiring strategies for ecological justice and Just Transition.

Crosby is a student of life who centers and uplifts the importance of deepening relationships to self, community, ancestors, nature, and spirit as we shatter toxic myths of separation and remember our way forward together.

Crosby has served on the boards of the National Peace Academy and as board Co-Chair at East Bay Meditation Center in downtown Oakland. Crosby received certification as a secular Mindfulness Facilitator in 2019 from UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center after having been an educator for ten years, having primarily taught Life Science in San Francisco.

Between 2015 – 2018, Crosby was a core organizer in local Bay Area organizing spaces such as The Last 3 Percent, Black Land and Liberation Initiative, and People’s Education Movement. Crosby is also a graduate of several local programs including Movement Generation’s Justice and Ecology Retreat 2017, Greenpeace Action Camp, Earth Activist Training’s Permaculture Design Program, East Point Peace Academy Kingian Nonviolence Trainings, Generative Somatics School of Embodied Leadership, and East Bay Meditation Center’s Practice in Transformative Action.

Crosby holds a BA from Olivet College with an Independent Major in Economic Development and an MA in Curriculum & Instruction from UNLV.

Dana is a daughter, sister, auntie, wife, and relative. Born on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, she is a descendant of Tagalog healers, farmers, and revolutionaries.

She spent the early part of her professional life writing and producing features and photo editorials for international magazines. As a travel journalist, she came to understand the impacts of colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism on local communities, cultures, and ecosystems around the globe. These experiences ultimately set her on a path of decolonizing herself and her work.

Prior to joining Movement Generation, she was the storyteller for a forest conservation organization, where one of her highlights was working with an intertribal alliance to tell the story of a land rematriation project in Sinkyone territory. Dana is honored to manifest with MG our shared vision of ecological justice.

Now living on Karkin and Lisjan Ohlone lands, Dana is a community organizer and volunteers with local organizations that focus on various forms of connection, healing, justice, and liberation. She’s also a ceramicist, singer in a political indie rock band, surfer, and skateboarder.

Deseree grew up between Southwest Louisiana and the Los Angeles area where she began her movement building journey as a student organizer working on queer and trans liberation struggles in 2008. After almost a decade of working within the LGBTQ movement, Deseree shifted her focus towards land-based work as a scholar, activist and farmer. In 2015 she became a co-organizer of the People of Color Sustainable Housing Network and in 2016 she co-founded the Queer Eco-Justice Project, organizing at the intersection of ecological justice and queer liberation. Deseree loves queering ecological education. She is also on the board of Shelterwood Collective and Sustainable Economies Law Center. Deseree holds an interdisciplinary MA in Social Transformation focused on African-diasporic spiritual traditions, ecology and land-based movements. Deseree is also an alumna of the ecological farming apprenticeship at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. She enjoys growing food and medicine, eating spicy foods, and nerding out about cats, movies and books. As a descendant of three generations of rural Louisiana sharecroppers, Deseree is committed to strengthening movements for black land, healing and liberation.

Isaac has worked, volunteered, and educated in trans, queer, and non-traditional relationship spaces. He’s participated in community building, cooperative economies, and information technology for over 20 years. He has volunteered in roles from street medic and crisis advocate to volunteer coordination and large event infrastructure. He’s passionate about educating others on digital security, (mostly ancient) history, and the different types of puns in wordplay.

Mateo is one of the co-founders of the Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project. He was born and grew up in La Paz, Bolivia. Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, he has worked in the labor, environmental justice and international solidarity movements. Mateo is the son of Barbara, fortunate father of Hayden and Nilo, and blessed to be partnered with Effie. He is a member of the Latin rock band Los Nadies. Mateo is also national co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance and is the co-chair of the Justice Funders’ Board of Directors.

Quinton is a change agent, activist, organizer, planner and non-profit management consultant. He was born and raised on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio. A strong work ethic with a loving and supportive family helped him navigate the challenges of racism and poverty. He studied Urban and Regional Planning at Michigan State University and received an M.A in Community Development and Planning from Clark University. Determined to continue his social justice work, Quinton and his soul mate moved to Oakland in 2009. Since then the Town has become the place they call home and the birthplace of their first child. Now, with over 20 years of community-based social justice experience, Quinton brings an array of skills to his work, such as community organizing, organizational development, strategic planning, meeting facilitation, and fundraising.

Cinthya organizes with working class communities of color to contest for power and win. She started organizing as a student in Sacramento leading efforts to fight the criminalization of young people of color. From 2007-2015, Cinthya led the immigrant rights organizing work for Causa Justa :: Just Cause. Cinthya led CJJC’s coalition work at the local, state and national level and was instrumental in the founding and coordinating of ACUDIR: Alameda County United In Defense of Immigrant Rights and SFIRDC: The San Francisco Immigrant Rights Defense Committee.

From 2015-2021 she was the Legislative Director for Alameda County District 2. She is currently the Chief of Staff for Oakland City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas.

Cinthya is an alumna of the Women’s Policy Institute and the School of Unity & Liberation (SOUL) Summer School for youth organizers. She is a recipient of the Fellowship for a New California and serves on the Board of Directors for CURYJ (Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice). Cinthya is a member of the Bay Area Coordinating Committee of LeftRoots.

Cinthya is a mama, birth worker and translator. She loves to spend time by the ocean and walk through the oak woodlands and redwood forests.

Dave is a co-founder and the Executive Director of the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, a collective-ran organic farm, eco-justice education and retreat center, and intentional community in Sonoma County, CA. With a background in environmental science, sociology and law, Dave has worked for 40 years within the social and environmental justice movements, including with the Abalone Alliance, Environmental Project on Central America, the Highlander Research and Education Center, the National Toxics Campaign, and Greenpeace International, as well as co-founded the Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy, the Wild Farm Alliance, the Genetic Engineering Action Network, Californians for GE-Free Agriculture, California Climate and Agriculture Network, and other projects. Dave has also worked in 30 countries and all over the U.S as a social movement strategic planning facilitator and consultant, most recently with the Hawaii SEED movement, the Pollinator Protection Network, Californians for Pesticide Reform, the Agroecology Advocacy Network, the GAIA global alliance, and the BreakFreeFromPlastics global movement.

Margi is an independent facilitator and coach for grassroots organizations and national alliances. Her work focuses on strengthening alternative institutions including worker coops, land trusts, and community funds. She brings creative approaches to strategic planning, and works to embed equity practices in institution building. Her political roots are in the Central American liberation movement and environmental justice work. She has been part of Movement Generation as a facilitator and political homie since 2011, serving as a ‘movement midwife’.

Margi was raised in a progressive Irish-Catholic extended family and intentional community in Washington, DC. Margi has lived in Berkeley-Huichin Territory since 1984 and is blessed to call it home. Daily life includes raising two sons (now young men) with long time partner Matt, enjoying their bamboo garden where you can find her in the hammock reading a novel, or trading tomatoes for green beans somewhere on the block.

Sara works to build and maintain long-term relationships with organizations and social movements led by peasants, Indigenous Peoples, Afrodescendant communities, women and youth in the Global South. Sara also collaborates with other allies in the US and internationally. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Sara has spent the majority of her life in the United States and brings years of experience connecting local community organizing (such as with Direct Action for Rights & Equality in Providence, RI) with broader movement building efforts. She is part of a Black collective growing food and connecting with the earth together on an organic farm in New Hampshire. Sara is a mama and lives with her family in Boston on unceded Wampanoag and Massachusett territory.

Deseree grew up between Southwest Louisiana and the Los Angeles area where she began her movement building journey as a student organizer working on queer and trans liberation struggles in 2008. After almost a decade of working within the LGBTQ movement, Deseree shifted her focus towards land-based work as a scholar, activist and farmer. In 2015 she became a co-organizer of the People of Color Sustainable Housing Network and in 2016 she co-founded the Queer Eco-Justice Project, organizing at the intersection of ecological justice and queer liberation. Deseree loves queering ecological education. She is also on the board of Shelterwood Collective and Sustainable Economies Law Center. Deseree holds an interdisciplinary MA in Social Transformation focused on African-diasporic spiritual traditions, ecology and land-based movements. Deseree is also an alumna of the ecological farming apprenticeship at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. She enjoys growing food and medicine, eating spicy foods, and nerding out about cats, movies and books. As a descendant of three generations of rural Louisiana sharecroppers, Deseree is committed to strengthening movements for black land, healing and liberation.

Mateo is one of the co-founders of the Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project. He was born and grew up in La Paz, Bolivia. Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, he has worked in the labor, environmental justice and international solidarity movements. Mateo is the son of Barbara, fortunate father of Hayden and Nilo, and blessed to be partnered with Effie. He is a member of the Latin rock band Los Nadies. Mateo is also national co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance and is the co-chair of the Justice Funders’ Board of Directors.